30,000 people have signed this petition against the ban on all violent games in Germany, reports GameZine. The ban is set to be put into place on the 27th of September, but the public, or at least 30,000 of them, are certainly fighting this, and rightly so. Banning things is never the answer (except maybe murder and stuff). What follows is a translation of the aims of the petition.

“The German Bundestag should decide against the decision of the interior minister conference from the 5th of June, that aims for a ban of action computer games. As an adult citizen and a person eligible to vote, I beg you firmly;

# To erase the irritating and discriminating term of ‘killerspiele’ [killer game] from political discussion.

# To strengthen the trust of the public in existing national youth protection mechanics.

# To improve and warrant the execution of existing laws, that ensure kids and the youth only get access to video games and computer games rating according the USK.

# To support parents and educationally responsible persons in the advancement of media competence.

# To promote the computer games and video games industry in Germany and especially the training of these promising professions.”

I urge all of our German readers to sign up, unless they have already done so, or if they don’t feel like being able to play most modern games.

You know, Dan Landis and I discussed this very same topic in an upublished “From the Throne” debate. Yes, the two of us went back and forth on the topic while I was taking a dump.

I had the brilliant idea to end the debate by typing “flush” but I never took notes and therefore it never materialized. Luckily, G4TV’s Adam Sessler has a camera crew and a slightly more professional outlet to convey his opinions. Enjoy.

In a recent interview at E3, Valve Software’s Erik Johnson stated that the PS3 port of The Orange Box was done “mostly” by EA. So if it was only “mostly” done by EA, does that mean that Valve actually had a hand in making a game they consistently denied being a part of? Why does that even matter?

The only reason this could be a big deal is because Gabe Newell has always been down on the PS3, even going so far as to call it “a waste of everyone’s time.” Valve has always denied having a hand in the PS3 port, placing all of the blame for The Orange Box’s issues squarely on EA’s shoulders.  If Valve did, in fact, help make the Orange Box suck-fest, it would certainly make them look like a bunch of dicks.

There is a very vocal member of the GameTrailers forums, shhhoff, that has gone to great lengths to compile a list of “evidence” to support the claim that Valve worked on this game. The thing is Valve did work on the game — they fucking developed it! They did not, however, work on the port of the game to the PS3, or so they’ve said for the past 10 months.

Now Valve’s Erik Johnson says, “Well, EA handled most of the PS3, so I don’t have a lot of insight into that — they did most of the work”. The use of the word “most” is supposedly an indicator that not all of the work was done by EA.  The conspiracy theorists out there fail to realize that EA has a history of farming out it’s work, and have taken that to mean that at least some of it must have been done by Valve.

So shhhoff would like you to believe.  The reason I don’t buy it is because I’m a logical person.  Shhhoff’s blog is called “Gabe Newell – the fat princess” and is filled with animated gifs making fun of the Valve co-founder.  He even has a petition for a “real” patch to fix the game, which he is apparently very upset with.  His efforts reek of fanboyism, even if the PS3’s Orange Box does, in fact, still need some attention.

Of course, it’s easy to take that comment to mean whatever you want. It’s easy to assume that since Erik Johnson said “most” that he inadvertently spilled the beans on Valve’s involvement. I, personally, don’t think he said anything incriminating, but I’m interested to see how everyone else decides to spin his words.

Thanks to Mike for the tip.